A look at our Hawaii home

This is just a little peek into some of my favorite spots/pieces in our Hawaii home! I have a constant, rolling list of things I want to do or add, but it’s also good to just sit in contentment every once in a while and share progress – so it felt like time for this post! That said, I know I still want to buy or commission some artwork, preferably from a talented friend (will the real Alex Allen please stand up?)

It has been a serious dream come true for me to get to try my hand at decorating.

I’m sure I’ve mentioned this on my blog before, but I have so many conflicting style ideas. That goes for fashion, decorating, and really just my tastes in general. I know that every home I live in will have a different vibe and style, based on the house’s bones and personality. I love love love that we live in an A-frame house that was built in the 70’s in Hawaii, which gives it kind of a rustic vibe. Aside from being right on the beach, which is the most amazing thing for a girl from Nebraska, the house itself has a lot of character and feels both beachy and bohemian at once. I’d originally loved the idea of decorating in a french country style, but that didn’t completely fit here. And we also received some beautiful wedding gifts as well as second-hand furniture that I needed to find a way to fit all together cohesively.

I’m not sure about cohesive, but what I ended up with feels eclectic, fun and like a marriage between a whole bunch of different decor styles.

It was really funny and challenging decorating using some new items, the wedding presents I’d nearly forgotten about (because we couldn’t fit them in our hotel in Virginia!) and the things we acquired from family. What I’ve learned as a young person decorating our first place is that, regardless of the struggles presented in not buying new sets of all-matching items, it’s so helpful financially to receive secondhand furniture and pieces. The red couch we have – a pop of color in the living room that at first intimidated me, but that I now love – used to be Christian’s parents. Our white kitchen table was one my grandpa let me have that my mom and sister put lots of TLC into upcycling (my sister would say blood, sweat and tears) in order to make it look so adorably rustic. I am obsessed with it. Both of these items add sentimentality to our Hawaii house, which is so far away from our family homes.

I’ve learned that I would buy a new throw pillow or floor cushion every week if I could. But as it is, I’m on a young, newlywed budget, and that would get quite expensive. And do you know how much throw pillows go for sometimes?! To give the red couch a more beachy vibe I added the banana leaf pillows (a Walmart find! The outside cushions are from Walmart too) and the pink furry ones – which were from Amazon. I bought four of those pink pillow covers because I love them: two of them are on the white futon, which we’ll use for guests. The futon is also from Amazon; it was such a steal and exactly what I wanted. I was so thrilled to find that they would ship it to Hawaii (so many places won’t).

A lot of the copper items were wedding gifts we’d registered for, and I just adore every single piece. But, as any of you who have collected items over time or received wedding (or otherwise) gifts in bulk may know, not everything we have is copper. So I decided to use the bar cart as a way to be purposeful about mixing metals so that it wouldn’t feel weird to have lots of copper pieces, but also some gold items, and the occasional bit of silver or chrome.

I love our bedroom, too, because it’s lofted, and the A-frame design of the house kind of makes it look like an attic up there. There’s a large window that we can see out of too, so that if you’re sitting up in bed you can see how high the surf is. I had to face my desk (which functions as my office) away from that big window so that I could actually get work done every day, instead of watching the beach-goers.

This yellow house has been a dream from the moment Christian and I found it online (using AHRN.com, for all you military readers) and decided to take the plunge and sign a lease – with our equally brave roommate – from thousands of miles and an ocean away.

Adding our own style and pieces – some old, some new, some borrowed and some blue (looking at you, KitchenAid mixer) has just made it all the more dreamy.

*A note to my husband: I’m sorry for kind of making you my muse. And also that I’m so obsessed with taking photos of you while you’re mid sip of coffee or conversation. I find it funny that you’re so obscenely more photogenic than I am.

But readers, I’m gonna go ahead and invoke my deep understanding of the collective human psyche and assume you don’t mind one bit. He looks just like Prince Eric, yeah?? 🙂